Mike Carter's Blog for Wine Packaging, Design & Marketing Insights

What Wine Business Doesn’t Need To Be Online?

September 27, 2007

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According to Alex Burmaster, internet analyst at Nielsen/NetRatings, South Africa has seen phenomenal internet expansion – growing by around 50% in each of the last two years. There are nearly four million people online in South Africa. This represents a huge opportunity for wine marketers.

The wine industry is missing a huge opportunity to forge deeper relationships with consumers using new technologies such as Web videos and wine blogs.

That was the blunt message delivered to wine industry executives in Napa on Tuesday by a young, outspoken New Jersey wine retailer who said the industry needs to embrace change or die.

â€œNinety-nine percent of the people in the wine business are really blowing it,â€ said Gary Vaynerchuk, director of operations for the WineLibrary, a Springfield, N.J. wine store with a popular interactive Web site.

Citing blogs specifically as a customer acquisition tool, Gary Vaynerchuk, as noted in a recent Inertia blog post, is something of an Internet sensation with his video blog and Josh Hermsmeyer, owner of Capozzi Family Winery and the blog Pinotblogger.com is building his wine business before releasing a single bottle of vino. Hermsmeyer gave a presentation on the power of blogging for wineries at WITS. His presentation is posted at his site, found here.